Beverage roundup - Green tea - July 2007
I’m a bit of a beverage snob, and my latest fascination is with green tea. It’s genuinely good for you (so they say), and has lots of helpful compounds in it (such as the currently hip antioxidant “ECGC”). Having been into it well before the latest craze started, I’m happy to find all of the major beverage manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon. Brewing your own is nice, but you aren’t going to cart that around
At this point, I’ve tried a number of varieties — both good and bad — and figured I’d post my mini-reviews:
Lipton Green Tea (Citrus) -Yuck. Intensely sweet, and filled with high fructose corn syrup. Has that metallic tang typical of cheap pink lemonade. I’m not sure why they even bother to put this in a bottle.
Arizona Green Tea w/Ginseng and Honey - Mediocre. Very sweet, and the ingredient list has both honey and sucralose (!) which gives it a stranger aftertaste than if they had used regular cane sugar. The sweetness overpowers all other flavors, almost as if the tea itself was an afterthought.
Glaceau Vitamin Water “Rescue” Green Tea - Vitamin Water definitely has some good flavors, and this is one of them. A bit minty, and a hint of lemon in the aftertaste. Vapor distilled water, green tea, some sugar (crystalline fructose), and a bunch of vitamins. It’s on the sweeter side of their lineup, perhaps on the level of the raspberry “Defense” variety. Overall, very drinkable.
Honest Tea - Heavenly Honey Green - Tasty. The tea itself has a slightly smoky flavor. Very lightly sweetened with honey and cane sugar, and the flavor of the honey definitely comes through. All the ingredients are organic, nothing offensive on the list. They also make a “Just Green Tea” which is simply pure green tea (but the complete lack of sweetness gives the tea a bitter edge).
Trader Joe’s - Orange Bergamot Green Tea - Light and subtle. Tea flavor is slightly weak. Tastes slightly sweet, but actually contains no sugar at all. Orange and bergamot give the flavor a citrusy, herbal kick.
The verdict? Well, it depends on your sweet tooth. The perfect green tea, in my estimation would be somewhere between the Vitamin Water and Trader Joe’s blends. (The house green tea at Noodle-ism in Austin, Texas comes very close.)
testing 1, 2, 3
switching the hosting!